The Prisoners of Hogwarts

Chapter 212 Transformation into Mist

Chapter 212 Transformation into Mist

Lynch lied.

The fog didn't appear "occasionally"; rather, it appeared from the very night the plan began, like a silent, omnipresent ghost, flowing through the corridors, hovering on the stairs, and silently seeping into every public space of the castle.

Of course, out of respect for the privacy of the professors and students, the fog did not penetrate into the professors' offices or the students' dormitories.

It was as thin as the morning mist just before it dissipated, barely blurring the outlines of distant objects and slightly blurring the edges of torch and candlelight. Only in those particularly long, straight, and poorly ventilated corridors would the mist condense slightly, like a translucent veil, quietly suspended in the air.

Maintaining such a magical creation, which covers the entire castle and lasts for weeks, requires an astonishing amount of magic power.

But Lynch did it.

He relied on his own unfathomable and vast source of magic to continuously provide energy to the monitoring network that covered the entire school.

The price was obvious: he could not return to his stone house in the Forbidden Forest to rest, and at night he could only stay in the rest room behind his office on the second floor, which was almost equivalent to completely confining himself within the castle.

The students gradually noticed the presence of the fog, but in the face of the panic brought about by the renewed attack, the sudden appearance of the thin fog inside the castle hardly attracted their attention.

Their minds were completely consumed by a more pressing fear—who would be next? Which corridor was unsafe? Who could they still trust?

"Have you noticed the fog?" occasionally a younger student would ask anxiously.

"Never mind that," an older student would anxiously interrupt, "The important thing is not to get separated from others, remember?"

The professors reacted to this unusual phenomenon in different ways.

One morning, Professor Flitwick rose early to examine the magical composition of the mist with great interest, using his wand. Several beams of silver light shot from the tip of his wand, tracing intricate patterns within the mist. "Exquisite magical structure," he murmured in admiration, "a stable flow of magic, and..." He suddenly fell silent, as if realizing something, and hastily put away his wand and left.

Professor Sprout focused more of her attention on her students, especially now that the Justin-Finley attack had occurred. She made a point of stopping several Hufflepuff students at the greenhouse entrance to make sure the fog wouldn't affect their breathing before she felt relieved.

Snape remained silent, staring at the fog that surrounded him. He had always believed that a large part of Lynch's reputation as the "Mist Hangman" stemmed from his hunting expeditions during the dense fog that was common in England, where visibility was extremely low.

But at this moment, feeling the unusual mist that permeated the entire castle, he finally realized that the mist was not a celestial phenomenon, but a creation of magic, an extension of the caster's senses.

The man wasn't walking in the fog—he was the fog itself.

Meanwhile, the atmosphere inside the castle is undergoing a subtle change.

Just as Lynch had anticipated, with the professors' deliberate leniency, details of the attack were leaked out, and panic and antagonism, like mold growing in damp fog, once again spread throughout the castle.

The auditorium became the most obvious indicator of the trend.

At the Hufflepuff table, the badgers were arguably the most united group among the four houses, unconsciously huddled together, regardless of whether they came from Muggle or wizarding families. Susan-Borns always sat in the center; her aunt, Amelia-Borns, was the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, but this didn't give her much of a sense of security. Their voices were much lower than usual, and they frequently glanced around warily during their meal.

The Ravenclaws attempted to analyze the current situation rationally.

“Logically speaking,” Terry Boot said at breakfast, “the attackers must be very familiar with the castle, and…” He was interrupted by the sudden clatter of plates beside him, which startled several students.

When everyone realized it was just Pippi the Pooh playing a prank, they breathed a sigh of relief, but the tense atmosphere lingered.

The Slytherin table presents a more complex picture.

Unlike usual, Draco Malfoy remained unusually silent, only occasionally turning to Crabbe and Goyle to mutter something in low voices, his face showing obvious displeasure. Some time ago, his father had visited him at Hogwarts, and that day, his father had sternly warned him to "be careful what you say until the situation regarding the Hogwarts attack becomes clear." This instruction clearly weighed heavily on him, and he could only scan the other house students in the Great Hall with a somber gaze.

However, the atmosphere at the other end of the long table was completely different. Marcus Flint was brandishing a knife, loudly proclaiming, "If you ask me, Hogwarts should have cleaned its ranks a long time ago. Look at the state it's in now!" Several students around him nodded in agreement, and one girl added in a shrill voice, "My father says that some bloodlines should never be allowed into the magical world."

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But most Slytherin students wisely chose to remain silent, for their beloved Headmaster Snape's sharp, piercing gaze had already swept over them.

Malfoy finally couldn't hold back any longer and said in a low voice to Crabbe and Goyle beside him, "Look at those Hufflepuff Mudbloods, daring to sit there so brazenly." His voice wasn't loud, but it was enough for the nearby students to hear. Goyle nodded awkwardly, while Crabbe let out a rough laugh. But when Professor Snape's cold gaze swept over him, Malfoy immediately fell silent and pretended to focus intently on the pumpkin juice in front of him.

Gryffindor's reaction was the most intense. In the common room, Ron Weasley repeatedly waved his fist and said, "If I find out who's behind this..." His words were always sternly interrupted by Percy: "Enough, Ron! The most important thing now is to follow the rules." But privately, Percy had to admit that the situation was getting out of control.

Friction began to occur frequently.

On Monday morning, Ernie Macmillan of Hufflepuff found a note in his Potions textbook that read "Mudblood Sympathizer." On Tuesday, Ravend Brown of Gryffindor and Millison Burst of Slytherin got into an argument in the hallway after a shoving match. On Wednesday, a group of Ravenclaw students refused to share a table in the library with the Slytherin students.

The professors would appear promptly after each conflict.

Professor McGonagall was always the first to arrive, her expression more stern than ever. "Twenty points off each!" she announced to the students in the confrontation. "If I see similar behavior again, I'll put them in solitary confinement!" But after the punishment, a hint of worry would always flash in her eyes.

The changes in the classroom were equally noticeable.

In Potions class, students from different houses almost never spoke when paired up. As Snape paced around the classroom, the only sounds were the bubbling of cauldrons and the occasional sob—some student had messed up a potion again out of nervousness.

During Defense Against the Dark Arts class, Lockhart was still rambling on. "In my book, *Wandering with Werewolves*..."

"I showed you how to deal with this dangerous situation..." he said with a bright smile. But only his fans were still listening to him; the rest of the students were no longer paying attention.

Daily life in the castle was completely changed.

After curfew, no students were out at night anymore; no one was wandering around outside. Even George and Fred were kept under Percy's watchful eye.

In the library, Mrs. Pince often had to intervene because students were always arguing over seating arrangements.

Even Peeves sensed this atmosphere, becoming more active and often singing his self-composed ditty in the corridor: "Mudbloods, watch out, the heir is nearby~" until he was chased away by an angry Filch or some professor.

In this atmosphere, Lin Qi waited quietly.